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INVESTIGATION OF THE APPLICABILITY OF ACOUSTIC PULSE VELOCITY MEASUREMENTS TO THE EVALUATION OF THE QUALITY OF CONCRETE IN BRIDGE DECKS

COMPRESSIONAL WAVE VELOCITY WAS MEASURED AND COMPARED WITH SEVERAL OTHER SIGNIFICANT PROPERTIES OF CONCRETE SPECIMENS, OF WIDELY VARYING COMPOSITIONS. VELOCITIES MEASURED IN CONCRETES CONTAINING COARSE AGGREGATES WERE FOUND TO DECREASE WITH LOSS OF STRENGTH. IN ALL CONCRETES TESTED, THE ELASTIC MODULUS COULD BE ESTIMATED SATISFACTORILY FROM THE MEASURED PULSE VELOCITY AND THE UNIT WEIGHT. A TECHNIQUE FOR MEASURING COMPRESSIONAL WAVE VELOCITIES ON BRIDGE DECKS OR OTHER CONCRETE STRUCTURES HAVING ONLY ONE ACCESSIBLE SURFACE WAS VALIDATED BY MEASUREMENTS MADE ON LABORATORY SPECIMENS. A PORTABLE FIELD-TYPE VELOCITY MEASURING INSTRUMENT UTILIZING THIS TECHNIQUE WAS DEVELOPED. IT WAS CONCLUDED THAT SUCH AN INSTRUMENT APPEARS SUITABLE FOR THE TASK OF DETECTING THE EXTENT OF DETERIORATION OF CONCRETE IN BRIDGE DECKS. /AUTHOR/